Great British Journeys

9:45pm – Sunday, January 16 on 7TWO

NEW EPISODE

In tonight’s episode: H V Morton was one of the most successful travel writers of all time and he was the first to write about touring in a motor car. In his two blockbuster books about Scotland. he covers hundreds of miles in his Bullnose Morris, but some of the real excitement of his writing lies in his excursions off-road, when he abandons his car to climb in the Cairngorms or the Isle of Skye.

Morton seems to celebrate the whole country, including its writers and its history. Alongside enthusiastic descriptions of mountains and lochs, he recalls the beautiful lilt of Gaelic speakers recounting historical tales and superstitions. But important things are missing from Morton’s depiction of Scotland. Can Nick make his own ‘Bullnose Morris’ journey and discover why Morton was so very selective in the things he chose to write about?

9:45pm – Sunday, December 26 on 7TWO

NEW EPISODE

In tonight’s episode: Can Nick re-trace a medieval journey first made eight hundred years ago? In March 1188, a forty-year-old adventurer embarked upon a seven-week expedition around the wild perimeter of Wales. Gerald of Wales was a writer, a scholar, a churchman, a would-be crusader and an inveterate gossip. But, above all, he was fearless and curious, with a keen eye for geographical detail. His book would make him the first natural historian of Wales.

Gerald’s mission was to recruit men for a great crusade against the armies of Saladin, then occupying the holy land. Travelling on horse and by foot, his party crossed treacherous mountain passes, quicksands and raging rivers. Nick sets out to find Gerald’s exact route from the English border to the remotest parts of North Wales.

In this fascinating new series, Nick Crane investigates eight epic and challenging journeys, following steps taken by some of Britain’s greatest explorers through some of the most spectacular and wildest landscapes in the world.

9:45pm – Sunday, December 19 on 7TWO

NEW EPISODE

In tonight’s episode ‘William Cobbett’s Rural Rides’ (1821 – 1826): A farmer’s son and one-time ploughman, William Cobbett was born in 1763, in Farnham, Surrey. A highly politicised writer and champion of Radicalism, Cobbett loved the countryside, and his Rural Rides are one of the best known elegies to rustic southern England. He cared passionately about the plight of humble farm labourers, and he understood that the agricultural crisis of the early 19th century would eventually lead to outright rebellion. He railed against corrupt statesmen and dodgy middlemen, and celebrated the intrinsic worth of old-fashioned farming practices. Nick sets off to discover whether Cobbett’s tirade was justified and whether today it’s still possible to find anything of Cobbett Country.

In this fascinating new series, Nick Crane investigates eight epic and challenging journeys, following steps taken by some of Britain’s greatest explorers through some of the most spectacular and wildest landscapes in the world.

9:45pm – Sunday, December 12 on 7TWO

NEW EPISODE

Tonight on Great British Journeys: Can Nick follow in the footsteps of an intrepid 17th century explorer to the very top of the great precipice at Blackstone Edge? It took a certain kind of woman to ride a horse from London to the Scottish border. That Celia Fiennes was courageous there is little doubt, but she was also an acute observer. Her descriptions make fascinating comparison with the modern landscape.

In this fascinating new series, Nick Crane investigates eight epic and challenging journeys, following steps taken by some of Britain’s greatest explorers through some of the most spectacular and wildest landscapes in the world. Hardly any aspect of England’s geography escaped her eye. Celia was fascinated by anything that was new. Country houses and gardens, the hospitals and spas appearing all over the country: they all spelt out the march of progress that she thought made England great.

9:45pm – Sunday, December 5 on 7TWO

NEW EPISODE

In this fascinating new series, Nick Crane investigates eight epic and challenging journeys, following steps taken by some of Britain’s greatest explorers through some of the most spectacular and wildest landscapes in the world.

Tonight on Great British Journeys: William Gilpin’s book Observations on the River Wye was a milestone in the development of tourism. Gilpin became the high priest of ‘the Picturesque’, a new theory of landscape, celebrating the wild and ruined, and it transformed our way of looking at nature. Nicholas Crane investigates one of the truly great river journeys of the British Isles.

In Observations on the River Wye (1770), William Gilpin drew, painted and discussed one of the most beautiful rivers in Great Britain. He did so in order to formulate his theories on landscape, the picturesque and the nature of God. In seeking out nature and views, Gilpin was actually the first to popularise a pastime we assume is timeless. A country clergyman, he became the genius of British sightseeing, and his journey an important milestone in British tourism. In a sense, William Gilpin’s trip down the River Wye – largely conducted on a boat in pouring rain – was about helping us to see this country in a new light.

9:45pm – Sunday, November 28 on 7TWO

7TWO PREMIERE

In this fascinating new series, Nick Crane investigates eight epic and challenging journeys, following steps taken by some of Britain’s greatest explorers through some of the most spectacular and wildest landscapes in the world. Tonight Nick attempts to piece together the journey taken by 18th century explorer, Thomas Pennant, who set out to explore the last remaining blank on the map of the British Isles, a place he described as ‘desolation itself’.

Long before Lonely Planet began offering Hebridean tips on midges and local history, Thomas Pennant island-hopped through the wildest archipelago in the UK. Readers of his masterwork, A Tour in Scotland, learned about rocks that could overpower a compass or prove the real age of the earth, and about a people teetering on the edge of starvation. A pioneer, a scientist and an explorer, Thomas Pennant put the Highlands and Islands on the map.

Can Nick piece together the route which Pennant took and solve the puzzle at the heart of it – why Pennant turned back at Ledbeg in Sutherland and undertook an eighteen mile trek through rain, bogs and mountains to the obscure island of Inchmaree? Nick makes the same trek over the still difficult terrain to answer the question.

7TWO gets a summer makeover of sorts as well with a number of shows new to 7TWO in the schedule.

New 7TWO titles include All Creatures Great and Small, 10 Years Younger, Great British Journeys, Escape to the Sun, Extreme Health Farm, Jonathon Creek and Pie in the Sky.

Here is the summary:

Sunday Nov 28
6.00 Love Thy Neighbour
6.30 All Creatures Great and Small (new to 7TWO)
7.30 Bargain Hunt
8.00 10 Years Younger (new to 7TWO)
8.30 Escape to the Country
9.45 Great British Journeys (premiere)
10.45 Escape to the Sun (premiere)
11.15 Extreme Health Farm (premiere)

Monday Nov 29
6.00 Floyd’s American Pie (Mon – Fri)
6.30 Bargain Hunt (Mon – Fri)
7.00 George and Mildred (Mon – Wed, Fri)
7.30 Heartbeat
8.30 Jonathon Creek (new to 7TWO)
9.40 Movie: Half Broken Things (premiere)

Tuesday Nov 30
7.30 Fawlty Towers
8.15 The Vicar of Dibley
9.15 Benidorm
9.45 Not Going Out
10.20 Movie: Little Nikita

Wednesday Dec 1
7.30 Heartbeat
8.30 Pie in the Sky (new to 7TWO)
9.40 Wycliffe (double)

Thursday Dec 2
7.00 Movie: Mermaids
9.10 Movie: Gooooood Morning Vietnam

Friday Dec 3 and Saturday Dec 4
No Changes – remain the same as previous weeks.